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Skyrim - Lets Make it Exciting Again

So I'm ten hours into a new play through of Skyrim and would like to gather some thoughts from the community regarding the game, mods and suggestions on how to keep Skyrim fresh and exciting. I love exploring this huge, open world. I have the "Corners of Skyrim" mod and cannot recommend it enough. Does wonders for exploration when you find that small hideout/hut with a lone bed and a chest for your gear, but no cheats or overpowered items. Or that spooky abandoned jail, haunted with ghosts. Corners of Skyrim is a breath of fresh air in a stale world.

And Skyrim is stale. Make no mistake. I have done a number on the game through mods, but unlike Oblivion, it simply does not seem to be working this time around. So far I have:

-Tougher dragons. Real racial differences. Hard hitting, staggering combat. Deadly magic, without combat regen so you have to use it wisely, like your powers in the Witcher 2 or Dishonored. I have made merchant far more immersive, basing Smith's goods on the mines in their holds or their affiliation/location. Riften has tons of Ebony because the hold mines the stuff. Markarth has a near monopoly on Dwarven, with the mine there.

I have torn down magic, combat, loot, gold drops, stealth, Dragons and even enchanting and merchants...and yet. And yet I just cannot seem to find that formula that compels to me wander this world and explore. I find Dwemer ruins to be soulless, boring places. Falmer are...irritating. Blind or nearly so...but their aim sure is good for all that.

Maybe it is the small bestiary. Maybe its the truly antiquated look and feel of the animations. Maybe its the godawful writing. But none of those things kept me from Oblivion as they do from Skyrim. So I am wondering: What have others done to keep their Skyrim game fresh, exciting and new. What gets you out into that craggy wilderness to explore? Or have you given up and moved on to other, newer game engines?

I have been waiting for the mods that make the game dangerous as hell, but manageable (ie: don't just turn everything to 10 billion health and the player to three) and quick rather than laborious, and ones that turn the economy into a real struggle to survive, rather than to find something to do with your exponentially growing mountain of gold.

However, the only ones I've seen that promise to do this require the add-ons, which I can't afford at the moment, so. But I'd be interested in what other people have tried, since I'd rather not turn the game into a crashfest like I did with GTA4.

Based on my experience with Fallout 3 though, I'd recommend getting mods that make the world dangerous, and changing the way you play. Death means game over. Never block. Potions are for big babies. Just some kind of rules for yourself to mix things up.

I'd recommend anyone to try semi-hardcore. For each type of enemy, work out what sort of bad things can happen to you if they beat you. Then, if they do, randomly decide between those options. Bandits will tend to steal stuff, and so on. This can also help create stories about what's going on between you and the various groups.

Play as a bard. Wander from inn to inn. Make up rules about how good your songs and tales are, based on your skills and also the sorts of things you've seen. See something impressive? Be part of an epic battle? Find some obscure story or book somewhere in the world? Congratulations, you'll have some fine tales to tell. But don't stay in the same place too long or they'll start to get stale. Befriend a heroic companion and "follow" their adventures, specializing in support skills like Restoration and Illusion rather than combat skills. Probably have to do a bit of modding to make you weaker while making sure the companion is still strong relative to the enemies. Mjoll the Lioness would be a good "hero" to follow.

But what I'd probably suggest most for you based on all your posts is to maybe just let Skyrim go. It may just be that you don't like it so much. That's nothing weird. I think I prefer Oblivion to Skyrim for instance: for me, the base mechanics of Oblivion are easy to tweak into something I enjoy, whereas Skyrim would require a big overhaul that I doubt will ever be made.

Use the "Live Another Life" alternate start mod. Choose "Random" if you are feeling lucky. Maybe you will start out as a necromancer in a cave, or robbed and left for dead in dangerous territory with nothing to defend yourself with. I started an Argonian character and chose the "Argonian Dock Worker" start. I started with nothing, did some odd jobs around town (and a little thievery) to obtain some starter equipment, then set out on my own to make a name for myself.

If you like archery, playing with no crosshair and disabling auto aim is great fun. It takes time to master it, but there is nothing like manually lining up a shot on a long range target, releasing your arrow, and watching it streak towards them for 5 seconds in the ranged kill cam. Or when a dragon is lumbering toward you, and you are trying to line up that final kill shot while your screen is bouncing around. Playing like this actually made me pause in a bandit ruin I had just cleaned out, and take some shots at a straw target to practice my aim. Pretty immersive in a way.

"What were we talking about? Pegasuses, pegasii, that's horses with wings. This motherf*cker got a sword that talks to him. Motherf*cker live in places that don't exist, it comes with a map. My God."

I'm experimenting with Frostfall which introduces hypothermia ... but I'm thinking of dumping it because it's more tedious than interesting given how compressed Skyrim is in terms of geographic and temporal scale.

I'm using someone's monster mod which has added more variety to the wildlife and a mod that makes the AI a little smarter tactically (I've yet to see this claim proven true, but I've seen a greater number of animals do the Loop of Ambivalence so perhaps it's trying to make some of them run away or get behind me and the code for it is all buggy) and a little less aggressive in certain cases (bandits and such have their camps and won't attack you unless you get too close, bears roar at you and give you some time to back off ... it's not complete, but it's added some nice little moments).

I'm using the ACE Combat mechanics and perks mod and rather enjoying it. I can't just change weapons in the middle of a tough fight and get out safely. I have to be really careful I'm not in a weaker "stance" such as weapon-less or else I'll take more damage and my armor will reduce damage by less. Running away becomes more dangerous because attacks from behind hit for more. Etc.

I have a mod that allows for sneak-attack spells. It's difficult because most spells are flashy and loud, but if you have a high stealth skill, you can get a stealth bonus for that first fireball of the fight.

I'm still figuring out what magical balance mod I'm most interested in. I want magic to be less tedious and more tactical--it's a lot of fun as is, but I'd like to cut down on the potion chugging and it's not quite powerful enough for me to rely on it for a whole fight as surely as I can rely on my sword. I expect to be less safe, but the exchange should be a little less reliance on armor and what-not. One thing I'm loving is the Invested Magic Mod (or something like that). It changes persistent effects (armor buffs, summons) so that they reserve a chunk of your Magicka rather than being a fire-and-forget spell with a time limit. You can summon an axe for as long as you'd like ... but you have less Magicka to work with while you're concentrating on holding it's existence together. Similar with destruction-cloaks and mage-armors.

I found a mod that gives enemies a chance to have non-standard spells, for example, so I now (as I did in my first play-through) come up against wizards with spells I haven't seen before or at least with spells that equal my new acquisitions in power.

It really sounds like you're done with Skyrim though. I'm not moding the game because I find wandering in the world uninteresting. I'm moding the game because after playing a lot of Skyrim I'm starting to find elements of the somewhat simplistic and flawed mechanics frustrating but I'm not done exploring Skyrim yet. I'm still excited by the sandbox of Skyrim, but not by all of the toys in it or the rules I've been told to follow while I'm playing with them. As such, I'm editing the weapons, the magic system, the weight of items, the monsters, and such ... but MOST of my mods just add things that are in keeping with the world. Graphical enhancements, new quests, new weapons, new spells, new enemies, new places, new dragons ... more stuff to play with in the sandbox.

It sounds like you've had some good times with the game. Perhaps it is simply time to move on. Or maybe someone will suggest a mod that you'll fall in love with. I don't know ... if I find a game really interesting but also frustrating or incomplete, that's when I apply mods (if possible). When I don't find it interesting (anymore) ... I'm going to need a pretty fundamental overhaul. That's my two cents.

Last edited by gwathdring; 01-02-2013 at 09:59 PM.

I think of [the Internet] as a grisly raw steak laid out on a porcelain benchtop in the sun, covered in chocolate hazelnut sauce. In the background plays Stardustís Music Sounds Better With You. Thereís lots of fog. --tomeoftom

Reflecting on my time with the game I'd say certain aspects give an impression of it being a soulless land. The quicker some talented modder mods in a whole league of new monsters and NPCs the better. Bethesda like to be conservative, yet I've found way better experiences when modders let the creativity flow. Look at Tamriel Rebuilt, it has some vistas and places that are mesmerising. More NPCs in the cities would be a step forward, something akin to The Witcher 2, heck, even The Witcher 1, and make them appear to be really existing there, because they don't. Their routine cycles aren't convincing.
I'd love to see an eccentric designer take Skyrim and mash it up with Proteus, make it an audio visual orgasm.

If you're playing as archer,there are several mods which greatly improves the experience with bow. One mod is to adjust distance to target,so you aim far above their head to hit them,next one is for arrows which have i don't know what problem ir vanillia etc.

playing this one without a crosshair should add a bit of realism and difficulty.

I used iHUD to turn off crosshairs but kept the sneak indicator, the idea being that if I could approach unseen and strike first I'd have time to set up and make an accurate shot, but in combat and especially on the move I couldn't have perfect accuracy. It certainly made archery a bit more interesting, especially since it's so powerful to begin with.

@Blackcompany:
Sounds like your problem with exploration in Skyrim is that you don't like the locations you find out in the world.. or the enemies, writing and the game engine. I don't really see how you're going to fix that with mods unless there's a total conversion out there tailored for you. I've got 84 mods installed but most of them are either visual improvements, additional items, small game play tweaks or fixes for things that annoyed me.

There are some things that can add some more variety to the game, like the monster mod already mentioned above. Something that adds encounters might be worth a try as well, such as Warzones: Civil Unrest. There are some that add dungeons, quests and new locations out there but I have no idea what's good or not. Something like Skyrim Redone might be worth a look as well, perhaps?